The Centurion

What Does Corporate Takeover Look Like?

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The FCC’s move to repeal net neutrality regulations, which stop telecommunications companies from blocking, throttling, or charging for access to websites of their discretion, is just one more step in the direction of corporate control over our every-day lives.

Ajit Pai the chairman of the FCC, will have his name infamously etched into the history books, at least what remains of them in this near-Orwellian scenario which may very likely be our future.

Ajit Pai and other supporters for the repeal of net neutrality claim that net neutrality “stifles innovation,” yet this is simply not true. If one were to take note of the ever-increasing rate at which innovations have been made in social media, smartphone apps, and computing, then how could one say that the very regulations that keep the internet open are a detriment to progress?

It is ironic that advocates for the repeal of net neutrality claim that it amounts to government regulation of the internet. In fact, net neutrality prevents regulation of the web billion-dollar monopoly corporations like Verizon and AT&T.

Without net neutrality, these corporations could cut off access to websites they – or the United States government, which through the NSA has historically been tied to telecom companies – deem inappropriate for the public to read, just like in North Korea or China.

The unveiling of these plans also dovetail with the direction of our leaders to ever-greater subservience towards the interests of multinationals. The 2010 Supreme Court Citizens United ruling, which gave corporations the right to spend as much money as they saw fit in public elections, was a colossal step towards oligarchic control of the government by the super-rich.

We are witnessing a creeping power grab via the control of access to free information held by the public, the subtle incorporation of surveillance technology into consumer goods such as smart TVs, iPhones, and cars, targeted advertisements and propaganda, and the installation of a former Associate General Counsel for Verizon as FCC boss.

The repeal of Net Neutrality will have the potential to greatly reduce the ability of a discontent public from organizing, and sharing information freely against corporate elites.